Family filmgoer

JANE HORWITZ

Sunday

May 24, 2009 at 2:00 AM

Family-oriented reviews of current films to help judge what's appropriate for your child.

-- “Earth”: Though it is rated G, this hour-and-a-half reduction of the 11-hour “Planet Earth” documentary series that ran on cable television in 2006 has many harrowing moments. What narrator James Earl Jones calls “the drama of the hunter and the hunted” occurs over and over. Animal-loving kids, especially those under 10, may find it upsetting to see a pride of lions bring down an elephant, or a leopard catch a young antelope. The filmmakers carefully cut away before blood gets spilled, but “Earth” still celebrates the pursuit, slowing it down to a kind of ballet. There is also the doomed male polar bear, struggling to hunt on a melting ice shelf. We’re reminded that animals can starve in a changing habitat. The film does seem somewhat abridged, with a turgid symphonic score and overdramatic narration used to compensate. Even so, the footage is gorgeous. Just be sure your children can handle the idea of animals dying.

-- “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”:Icons of history and art are tossed together with bits of pop culture like so much salad in this lively yet oddly charmless sequel to the story of museum exhibits coming to life. Ben Stiller is back as a former security guard and Amy Adams (as Amelia Earhart), Owen Wilson, Hank Azaria and Robin Williams also star. Overstuffed though it is with special effects and plot, the movie will keep kids 6 and older engaged, if not in stitches. Its facts are often deliberately scrambled and/or dumbed down, but the film could still spark interest in everything from aviation history to art (famous paintings and photographs come to life). The littlest kids might briefly cower at the roaring T. rex skeleton, the giant squid, the Egyptian warriors with shrieking eagles’ heads, or the huge sculpture of Abraham Lincoln coming to life. Characters carry weapons, but no one gets hurt.

-- “Monsters vs. Aliens”: Kids 8 and older ought to have a fine time at this silly, irreverent and almost always ingenious animated spoof of 1950s-era “creature features.” It was done in 3-D, but doesn’t overuse the in-your-face aspect of it. There is toilet humor, but nothing too gross. Many under-8s will do fine at the film, but some may be spooked when the human heroine mutates into a 50-foot-tall version of herself, or when the many-eyed outer space villain clones himself into an army, or when his killer robot battles monsters on the Golden Gate Bridge. There is a remark about “boobies” and a hint of bare behind. SPOILER ALERT: One monster seems to die, but later we learn it’s OK.

-- “Terminator Salvation”: This new chapter in the “Terminator” series, with its post-nuclear landscape and unremitting mayhem and gloom, could give dystopian science fiction a bad name. Teens may find the intensity gripping, but if they don’t know the earlier “Terminator” films (all R’s), this one about an artificial intelligence program aiming to destroy humanity, will be a hard slog. This one is still grimly violent, though with relatively little gore (a little blood and some needles) and rare profanity. A female character faces the briefly implied possibility of sexual assault. There are huge gun battles and crashing of machines. Christian Bale stars as resistance leader John Connor.

-- “Angels and Demons”: Harvard “symbologist” Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) again uncovers secrets that make the Vatican queasy, only this time they’ve invited him inside to solve the abduction of several cardinals after the pope dies. Ron Howard directs with a heavy hand and a whole lot of pedantic exposition – this time about a secret 18th-century dissident group. Still, many high-schoolers will enjoy following the clues and seeing all the (re-created) church interiors and Renaissance art. “Angels & Demons” contains more violence and disturbing images than “The Da Vinci Code,” and may be too intense for middle-schoolers. We see victims with painful brands on their chests, two characters burned alive (though not graphically), a corpse being eaten by a rat (phobic alert), and a bloodied eyeball. There are shootings, though with little gore, and mild profanity.

-- “Star Trek”: The special effects are just tacky enough and the characters more than vivid enough to make this “Star Trek” prequel work just fine as a popcorn flick to please both purist fans and general audiences. It recounts in boisterous and occasionally confusing detail how the young Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Bones (Karl Urban), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Sulu (John Cho) and Chekov (Anton Yelchin) met and wound up boldly going from galaxy to galaxy at warp speed aboard the USS Enterprise. Fine for teens, the film will also work for many kids 10 to 12, but some of them may be unsettled by the Enterprise’s space battles. There is implied torture, intense fighting, an implied impalement and a lobsteresque monster, as well as mild sexual humor and innuendo, a brief nongraphic sexual situation, rare mild profanity.

-- “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”: There’s a brooding intensity to this prequel about the origin of Wolverine, leader of the mutant X-Men fighters (based on the comic books) and it’s darker than the trio of previous “X-Men” films. The film is very violent, with lots of implied impalements and a beheading, but little gore. Innocents also die. So it is an iffy proposition for middle-schoolers or preteens. A strong cast led by Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine and Liev Schreiber as his murderous half-brother Victor/Sabretooth helps us over the narrative bumps. The film has too much going on, such as the subplot about an island of captured mutants. The script contains occasional profanity and sexual innuendo, and there is nudity - but from a great distance.

-- “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past”: This crass but semi-clever fable owes its plot to Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and its sensibility to “Sex and the City.” Matthew McConaughey spoofs his own screen persona as Connor, a selfish, smarmy fashion photographer who brags about bedding all his models, then dropping them cold. He’s visited by the spirit of his late uncle (Michael Douglas, nearly stealing the movie), the selfish, smarmy guy who taught him how to treat “dames.” His repentant uncle warns that three ghosts will appear to save Connor from himself. The movie dodges an R with witty euphemisms for sexual terms and descriptions of promiscuity. There is much sexual innuendo and a few briefly steamy but nonexplicit, largely implied, sexual situations. There are verbal references to orgies and drugs. The script has lots of midrange profanity and toilet humor. Connor shows signs of being an alcoholic. There is other drinking, midrange profanity, and a theme about losing one’s parents as a child. Too crass and sexualized for middle-schoolers.

-- “Obsessed”: Beyonce Knowles does not test her acting skills as Sharon, a wife and mother threatened by a woman who is literally crazy for Sharon’s husband in this cheesy, predictable thriller. The film has considerable sexual innuendo and brief nonexplicit marital sexual situations. Crazy Lisa’s attempted seductions are steamy, at least on her part, but stylized and nongraphic. At one point, a baby seems in danger. There is smoking, drinking and midrange profanity. Not at all for middle-schoolers.

-- “The Soloist”: “The Soloist” blends high art and entertainment in near-perfect proportions. It is based (with some fictionalization) on columns and a book by Los Angeles Times writer Steve Lopez (played by Robert Downey Jr.) and his acquaintance with Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx), a homeless musician of great gifts but suffering from a schizophrenia-like illness. Lopez spots Ayers playing the violin on the street and is intrigued because he’s so good. He learns Ayers was a student at Juilliard 30 years earlier, but dropped out. In flashbacks, we see how young Nathaniel began hearing voices and disassociating from reality. There are briefly violent scuffles, a bloody crime scene with no body, people using drugs or unconscious from overdoses, occasional profanity, drinking, smoking, and toilet humor. For thoughtful teens.

-- “Next Day Air”: Violent, profane, lewd, full of drug references (and some drug use) and characters (including Donald Faison of TV’s “Scrubs”) on the wrong side of the law, “Next Day Air” is not for under-17s. That noted, the movie is very funny and, with well-known actors such as Mike Epps in a lead and actor/musician Mos Def in a supporting role, likely to attract teens. Directed by music video maven Benny Boom, it takes an edgy, wildly satirical jab at inner cities where choices seem so limited that drug dealing looks like an answer. The film has sexualized comedy and brief seminudity.

-- “Sunshine Cleaning”: In this fresh, eccentric and immensely enjoyable grown-up indie comedy, two 20-something sisters, sweet single-mom Rose (Amy Adams) and wild, undependable Norah (Emily Blunt), start a cleaning service, scrubbing away “organic” matter from murder, suicide and natural death scenes. Aside from the graphic nature of the cleanups (the bodies are gone), the film touches on suicide and loss of a parent, and contains profanity, sexual situations - one is explicit - and pot-smoking. Film buffs 17 and older.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.